The Representation of Siddhatta Gotama as a Misogynist in Armstrong's Buddha

Abstract

The central aim of this research is to critically analyze the representation of Siddhatta Gotama in Karen Armstrong’s Buddha, with particular attention to the construction of misogyny. The study seeks to interrogate the cultural presuppositions and ideological positions that inform the narrative, while also assessing the extent to which Western interpretive frameworks on gender and authority shape the biographical portrayal of an Eastern religious figure. The investigation adopts a discourse analytic framework that integrates thematic, interdiscursive, intertextual, and textual approaches. The data set comprises 58,076 words and 241 paragraphs extracted from a 224-page biography. The analytical procedure involved systematic examination of language use, discursive strategies, and contextual references in order to identify patterns through which misogyny is represented, negotiated, and recontextualized. The analysis generated four principal thematic categories: the refusal to admit female disciples, the notion of a hijacked misogynist, the depiction of a socially conditioned misogynist, and the rejection of the image of a fully developed misogynist. These findings demonstrate that the figure of Siddhatta Gotama is discursively positioned in ways that resonate with Western sociocultural understandings of gender and religion. Visual mappings and textual schemata further illustrate the discursive construction and partial contestation of misogyny within the narrative. The study offers an original contribution by revealing how a contemporary Western biographer reframes an ancient Eastern sage through the lens of gender discourse. Its novelty lies in demonstrating how processes of cultural translation and narrative mediation produce alternative representations that move beyond conventional or repetitive scholarly interpretations. increase.